Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
A Synod on Synodality -
What does that mean?
This Synod is intended as a Synodal Process. The aim of
this synodal process is not to provide a temporary or
one-time experience of synodality, but rather to provide
an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern
together how to move forward on the path towards
being a more synodal Church in the long-term.
-https://www.synod.va/en/the-synod-on-synodality/what-
is-the-synod-about.htm
And let the people say: Huh?
Prelates and prince-prelates and princesses
Whose names are prefaced with gilded adjectives
Attend their meetings and cloud the ecclesiastical air
With catalogues of obscure polysyllables
But somewhere – somewhere in a little parish
Fading into a forest far from the highways
Or in an underfunded religious house
Along some decaying steel town’s crumbling streets
Poor brothers and sisters catch the morning bus
To nursing homes and migrant shelters and jails
To serve the drunks, the druggies, the ne’er-do-wells
The abandoned and lonely children of God
Because everywhere – the faithless and the faithful
Tangle with Satan in physical and emotional pain
In the ******, soul-shrieking hells of war
In petitioning faceless functionaries
For even a little help, a doctor’s appointment
A job, a meal, a bit of dignity
In the shadow of bishops flying first-class
And taking selfies in their playbox dressups
Prelates and prince-prelates and princesses
Exchange lecture notes and witty bon mots -
An outcast bypassed on the pavement dies
A knotted rosary tangled in her aged hands
Perhaps her last words were of synodality
Cardinal Yuck-it-Up Tim Dolan comes to mind.